The Question of the Kitten
by DaughterOfStarlight
Summary: The daughter of Hades only wants one simple thing for her birthday this year. A cat. A living, breathing creature to live with her in the land of the dead. Hades is infinitely annoyed, but how can he deny her anything? Short and fluffy.


** Hey chickadees. This short piece was written for a friend after I told her that she reminded me of the daughter of quiet, intelligent Hades and buyout, ever-smiling Persephone. Here, she asks her father for a cat. It's not necessarily a serious fic, but I enjoyed it and I'll upload plenty of angsty, psycho-sexual Persades fics later, so no flames please. Enjoy. **

"Dad, can I get a cat?"

Hades, Lord of the Dead and King of the Underworld, looked up tiredly from the paperwork at his desk. He ran a pale hand over his face and then through his raven hair, suddenly feeling every bit his age.

"You want a what?"

A girl was curled up in the armchair by his fireplace, pleating her long hair. Her eyes were downcast and flickering across the ground, just as they did whenever she asked her father for anything.

"Well, my birthday's coming up-"

"In the summer," Hades reminded his daughter, whipping off his reading glasses and begrudgingly giving her all his attention. "Still months away."

"But I know what I want already!"

"A cat?" Hades asked, thin lips quirking into something that wasn't quite a smile. "A living, breathing, mortal creature?"

"A cat," His daughter said with a decisive nod. "I know mortal girls keep them as companions, familiars of a sort. They're fascinating, independent creatures. Quite beautiful. I've read all about them-"

"Darling, this is The Underworld. Things go here to die. This cat of yours would die," Hades muttered with his usual nonchalant bluntness. His daughter was accustomed to this cold logic, never cruel but always practical, and she rose from her seat, ready for a debate.

"There are ways living things can survive this realm! You can bend rules, Dad, rules are all that govern the dead here. You remember Psyche? And Orpheus!"

Hades pointed at her with his reading glasses, shined shoes up on his desk. "Psyche was your mothers pity case, you know that full and well. Aphrodite's boy was tied up in that mess; I had nothing to do with it. Orpheus…Well, he played a mean lyre. But that's irrelevant."

The girl, older than any living human but appearing in her late teens, drifted to he father's desk, laying her hands on his shoulders. She had her mother's eyes, a timid grey-blue, and the round, dewy face of a goddess of spring. But her skin was ivory pale as her fathers, and her silken hair was darkened by his bloodline, a deep chestnut that looked black in the right lighting. She emulated resigned beauty and a simmering intelligence that manifested in her small, quirking smiles and carefully chosen words.

Hades sighed, glancing up at his daughter. "I love you, California, I really do. I let you choose your own name for Zeus's sake, garish as it is, so that you could walk among human on your sojourns aboveground unnoticed. But you simply cannot have an animal, it's out of the question."

"Mom has her flowers!"

"They're enchanted. Caught and frozen in an imitation of life. In other words, a very pretty and lasting death. I'm the god of wealth, California, I'll lavish you with gifts if you want-"

"I have crown jewels and priceless books and silken ballgowns, Dad, I don't want more. I care about those."

"Oh? I can take them all back then?"

California caught herself with a grit-teeth smile. "No, I'm very grateful for my presents, Dad, I just want a cat most of all this year. I promise to take the best care of it and I won't let it into your study and-"

"It can't be done, California. I'm sorry."

He turned back to his papers, redrafting contracts of bondage and attending to pleas to be moved from purgatory into the Fields of Elysium. California sighed heavily, then slipped away and left her father to his work. Hades winced as the large doors swung shut behind her, then threw down his fountain pen and scowled, fist pressed to his mouth.

"Damn it all."

Then he rose, slipped into his jacket, and disappeared into the night.

Two hours later, the door to California's bedroom swung open to reveal a very tired and annoyed looking Hades. There was dirt smudged across his cheek and the collar of his pressed white shirt, and in his arms squirmed a mewling grey kitten. California, who had been cutting out paper hearts nad skeletons to adorn her room with, gasped and dropped her scissors when she saw him.

"You would not believe," Hades narrated, closing her door behind him with a halfheartedly angry kick. "The sort of Hell I went through to find a cat who could survive The Underworld. There was bartering with the Fates and some rot about demon's blood and arguing with some horrid beast with yellow eyes, but…Here she is."

Hades dumped the kitten unceremoniously onto California's bed. It sneezed and tottered, then pounced into the girl's lap, bopping it's head against her knee and purring loudly.

"It has a mutated tooth and no tail, but at least it's a cat," Hades sighed. "At least it better be a cat. If not, I swear I'm not going topside again-"

"She's wonderful!" California cried. "I shall call her Prudence." She clambered to her knees, kitten cradles to her chest, and kissed her father's cheek. "Thank you so much, Dad. It's the best birthday present ever."

Some of Hades' icy façade melted away, although he didn't want it to. "Well. I'm glad you like her. I should go get cleaned up before your mother gets home. She'd be furious is she found out that I was visiting earth and didn't visit her at her mother's. Ugh, that woman. If I didn't love her daughter…"

But California didn't hear. She was too busy nuzzling her new kitten and feeding her crumbs from the bagels on a silver tray near her bed. Hades took the cue and disappeared out of his daughter's room silently. Once in the hall, he smiled to himself, shaking his head. What he wouldn't do for that girl…


End file.
